Political Quotes

“Under the 5-minute rule I am recognized, and I want the opportunity to respond to the comments that were just made. My colleague from Kentucky keeps on saying that there will be no benefit from the EPA boiler rules in terms of health. Well, it's true that EPA didn't put a dollar figure on the potential health benefits from reducing emissions of mercury, carcinogens, and other toxic pollutants, but that's not because there won't be any benefits. Allow me to quote from EPA's regulatory impact analysis for the boiler rules: ``Data, resource, and methodological limitations prevented EPA from quantifying or monetizing the benefits from several important benefit categories, including benefits from reducing toxic emissions.'' Notice that this doesn't say that cutting hazardous air pollutants from boilers will have no benefits for public health. What are the benefits of cutting mercury pollution here at home? Cutting mercury pollution from boilers and incinerators will reduce localized mercury deposition. Reducing mercury deposition is critical to reducing Americans' exposure to mercury from eating contaminated fish. In 2000 EPA estimated that roughly 60 percent of the total mercury deposited in the United States comes from man-made air emission sources within the United States, such as power plants, incinerators, boilers, cement kilns, and other sources.…”